By IRIS CONLAY Delacroix, by Lee Johnson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 25s.), DELACROIX'S pictures, mostly known to us in this country in booksizc reproduction, appear a wild confusion of plunging horses, sinking ships, devouring lions. angels diving out of heaven. murders in high places, rape in low ones, bloody betties and fates worse than death.
These terrific scenes of violence, depicted with a Gallic vitality, need space and setting. They lose both within the pages of a small book and mean nothing. Lee Johnson has struggled to overcome this hurdle and as far as he has selected details, particularly when he reproduces them in colour, he has at last brought Delacroix to life.
This is. however, not a book for the idle leaf-turner. The text treats the subject too technically to hold the interest for long of these who have never serious'. tried to paint. As a balanced assessment of Delact•oix's influence on modern painting; it is admire
able.